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Following the 2024-25 budget settlement, the Scottish Government reviewed a number of budget lines in Education and Skills. In relation to Gaelic the outcome of this review is that there will now be no reduction to the MG ALBA funding for 2024-25. There will also be no reduction of the Gaelic, Education and Culture budget line which would have had an impact on the funding of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Storlann and other organisations and the Scottish Government has now provided additional funding to enable Bòrd na Gidhlig to continue its support for the Gaelic Officers’ Scheme in 2024-25.

The processing of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) screening request under section 8 of the Electricity Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 involves work across a number of teams within the Energy Consents Unit.

We do not centrally log or track the specific number of working hours spent by individual team members on any particular activity or task. The work is integrated into the broader responsibilities and workflows of the team. It is therefore not possible to calculate the average number of working hours spent processing in the years requested.

The processing of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) scoping request under section 12 of the Electricity Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 involves work across a number of teams within the Energy Consents Unit.

We do not centrally log or track the specific number of working hours spent by individual team members on any particular activity or task. The work is integrated into the broader responsibilities and workflows of the team. It is therefore not possible to calculate the average number of working hours spent processing in the years requested.

The Scottish Government is not responsible for the assessment of abandoned calls to NHS 24 which is an operational matter for the Board. We monitor NHS 24 performance against a number of indicators on a weekly basis.

Calls to the 111 service can be abandoned for a variety of reasons, including callers choosing to end their call after being connected to the automated messaging service and hearing the options available to them. These include accessing self-care advice via NHS Inform, or contacting another area of the health service which may be more appropriate to meet their needs.

The Scottish Government continues to support NHS 24's ongoing work to help reduce abandoned calls, including a recent revision of NHS 24's key performance indicators to better reflect and understand the current demands on the service. This work allows the Service to capture any unmet demand, and any potential risks where callers have made multiple attempts to access 111 without success.

The Scottish Government has commissioned Public Health Scotland (PHS) to collect, collate and publish waiting times for all gender identity clinics within the NHS in Scotland. This work will standardise and make routine reporting of waiting time information for these specialist clinical services. This commission also includes collation of patient cohort data, to help inform future service delivery. This work is ongoing.

The Scottish Government also provided funding in 2021 to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to support the publication of a trans/non-binary specific report as part of a wider Health Needs Assessment it published in May 2022, in partnership with NHS Lothian and PHS. The main report can be accessed here: stor.scot.nhs.uk/bitstream/handle/11289/580332/Final Report %2831 May 2022%29.pdf?sequence=1 and the trans/non-binary specific supplementary report accessed here: Health needs assessment LGBT+ people: Transgender and non-binary supplementary report (scot.nhs.uk) .

Furthermore, the Scottish Government has provided grant funding to the University of Glasgow for a programme of research on long-term health outcomes for those accessing gender identity healthcare in Scotland, to help expand the collective evidence base for this healthcare. This work is in progress, and funding has been awarded to a number of research projects and a PhD post as part of this programme.

Decisions on clinical pathways are not for the Scottish Government. These decisions are for clinicians, based on the best evidence available, through the appropriate clinical governance structures.

On 18 April, in a joint statement, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lothian confirmed that both Boards have paused any new prescription of puberty-supressing hormones and cross-sex hormones for young people as a treatment option for gender dysphoria.

The small number of patients directly impacted by this change, and their families, were notified in advance of this statement. It is right that they were the first to hear about it, sensitively and from the services caring for them, before a public statement was made.

The National Gender Identity Healthcare Reference Group continues to meet and make progress against all the commitments set out within the referenced December 2021 Strategic Action Framework. This includes:

• Healthcare Improvement Scotland developing standards for gender identity healthcare for NHS Scotland;
• NHS Education Scotland developing a Transgender Health Knowledge and Skills framework for NHS staff;
• Public Health Scotland working with Health Boards to deliver publication of waiting times data by them; and
• Grant funding to the University of Glasgow to administer a programme of research on gender identity healthcare.

Decisions on clinical pathways are not for the Scottish Government. These decisions are for clinicians, based on the best evidence available, through the appropriate clinical governance structures.

The Scottish Government is unaware of any discussions between NHS Scotland Health Boards and the UK Government regarding the prescription of puberty-suppressing hormones as a treatment option for gender dysphoria.

We recognise the ongoing impact that adverse weather conditions are having on Scotland’s agricultural industry – conditions that are a direct result of climate change.

The poor weather conditions experienced in the early spring will be presenting challenges to farmers and crofters at the time of peak lambing and calving, and will be impacting the ability to sow crops. The Farm Advisory Service, funded by the Scottish Government, provides resources for farmers and crofters in responding to the wet weather this year.

The Farm Advisory Service is also signposting people towards the charity RSABI. RSABI provide practical, emotional and financial support to all people involved in the Scottish agricultural industry.

The Scottish Government’s Aviation Statement, which will be published shortly, will set out actions that the Scottish Government will take to help achieve our aviation emissions reduction targets. As noted in the Climate Change Committee’s report, aviation decarbonisation will require UK-wide co-operation and progress across all aviation emissions mitigation solutions.